Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP President

By Jethro Ibileke

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), has issued a 14-day ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari, to dissolve the newly-constituted governing council and board of trustees of the HydroCarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).

MOSOP President Fegalo Nsuke said selection of members of the board lack credibility, because it does not have MOSOP input.

He also said the membership was deceitful and politicised.

“Corruption in HYPREP danced naked by the appointments,” Nsuke said.

“The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) wishes to express its disappointment in the composition of the newly constituted Governing Council and Board of Trustees of the HydroCarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP.

“Consequently, MOSOP hereby issues a 14 day ultimatum to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the decision, if the new phase of the Ogoni cleanup will enjoy the confidence and support of the Ogoni people.

“While it was our hope that the composition of the second Governing Council and the Board of Trustees of HYPREP by President Buhari will rekindle the hopes of addressing the protracted pollution in Ogoni, we were very disappointed in the composition which was lopsided, driven strictly by political party considerations and did not have the input of the Ogoni people represented by MOSOP.

MOSOP noted that the composition of this second governing structures of HYPREP has dampened the hopes of a renewed commitment to the Ogoni cleanup, following the failures and corruption that ruined the previous governing council.

The organisation regretted said the new board “hurts the credibility of the process as the new governing council and leadership is intended to deceive the people and is absolutely lacking in credibility.

“The list made public contains one Ogoni representative and two alternates, one alternate for the Ogoni representative and the other alternate for MOSOP, but the process did not have any input from MOSOP. Thus, there was clearly an attempt to mislead the public,” the statement said.

“Moreover, the said ‘alternate of MOSOP’ is actually the immediate past secretary-general of KAGOTE.

“We consider it very irresponsible and fraudulent to appoint a former executive of KAGOTE to represent MOSOP as an alternate.

“These misrepresentations suggests what is to become of the new Governing Council and hurts our commitment and hopes of rescuing our battered environment.

“As a matter of fact, we want to make it unequivocally clear that MOSOP cannot accept the role of an observer in a process it midwifed and gave birth to. The Ogoni cleanup is a product of the struggles of the Ogoni people led by MOSOP and any attempt to diminish our place in the struggles will be strongly resisted.

“MOSOP rejects the non-inclusion of the community in this process and demands an immediate reversal. The published list is misrepresented, deceitful and not acceptable to us.

“We are convinced that by these appointments, the federal government of Nigeria may not be truly committed to the cleanup of Ogoni and the Ogoni cleanup funds may just have been marked as cash cows for election funding, political patronage and compensation and it is our duty as a people to reverse these trends which are obvious threats to the cleanup exercise.

“We reject the deception which suggested the involvement of MOSOP in the Governing Council composition process whereas no input of MOSOP was considered.

“MOSOP will however give the government of President Muhammadu Buhari 14 days to reverse the decision, consult with MOSOP to correct these anomalies and have a more credible governing council in place if the process will enjoy the support of the Ogoni people.

“We condemn the total politicization of the process and misrepresentations caused by an obvious scramble for gains. It is our position that the Ogoni cleanup process is obviously in danger if these sharp and indecent practices are not addressed. The result would be a deeper corruption far exceeding the case with the previous Governing Council.

“The non-inclusion of MOSOP insults our integrity and place in the life of the Ogoni people and our struggles.

“We consider these appointments as putting the cleanup exercise in bad light, a completely discredited process, a scramble for money and not in any way a commitment to clean our polluted lands.

“Indeed, the corruption and credibility problems with the Ogoni cleanup have finally danced naked by the composition of this second Governing Council of HYPREP.”